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KIRYAT SHEMONA, Israel - U.N. observers in southern Lebanon called the Israeli military 10 times during a six-hour period to ask it to halt an airstrike before their observation post was hit, according to details of a preliminary U.N. report on the incident. Four U.N. observers were killed in the bombing Tuesday. During each phone call, an Israeli official promised to halt the bombing, according to a U.N. official who had seen the preliminary report, which was released to The Associated Press on Wednesday. The U.N. observers said the area within half a mile of the post was hit with...

Anarchy in the Palestinian Authority (PA) spread to the Rafiah border crossing, which was closed Friday morning after European Union (EU) observers fled 100 armed PA policemen who formed a blockade. The gunmen who stormed the compound belong to the unstable ruling Fatah party of PA chairman Mahmoud Abbas. One of their members was killed in a clash Thursday between terrorists. After the compound was stormed, the EU's observers stationed at the crossing quickly fled the scene in panic while the gunmen prevented vehicles from reaching the crossing. The observers are responsible for monitoring the crossing and enforcing the agreement...

UNITED NATIONS (AP) - Most international experts assessing the fairness of Iraq's elections will monitor the Jan. 30 vote from the safety of neighboring Jordan, but a few observers will head to Baghdad and perhaps other Iraqi cities if security permits, U.N. and other officials said Thursday. Experts putting together the international team made clear it will not conduct the usual on-the-ground election monitoring with hundreds of foreign observers in Iraq such as was recently seen in Afghanistan. Instead, it will be assessing the vote based on more than a dozen different criteria. "We believe we can run a very...

Swiss observer says US elections free and fair The Swiss head of the international mission, which monitored the United States presidential election, says the process was for the most part free and fair. In an interview with swissinfo, Barbara Haering said the mission did, however, uncover a few irregularities. Haering led a team of more than 90 observers from 34 states under the auspices of the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE). The team presented their preliminary findings in Washington on Thursday. Haering is a Social Democratic member of the Swiss House of Representatives, and vice-president of the...

MIAMI (AFP) - They have watched elections in the Balkans, in Asia and South Africa, but the complexity of the US presidential election every four years is enough to give a headache to even the most seasones international observer. It is "not one election, but 13,000 elections," said Canadian expert Ron Gould, a member of a delegation from the Vienna-based Organization for Security and Cooperation (news - web sites) in Europe (OSCE (news - web sites)) in Miami for the 2004 US elections after observing some 70 elections around the world. "We like to see the setup, how organized it...

Tom Daschle has already started the ball rolling in the first of an anticipated series of lawsuits charging Republicans with suppressing minority votes. If—OK, when—Democrats claim voter intimidation or other election fraud in the presidential contest today, they will undoubtedly have at their side “independent” international monitors—who happen to be selected and overseen by two rabidly partisan American Democrats. Acting on an invitation from the State Department, the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) is, according to its own website, sending over 60 observers to seven states, including four of the most hotly contested: Florida, Ohio, Minnesota, and...

Just announced on fox. Big victory for us!!!

This cause originated upon the filing of a complaint for a writ of mandamus. Upon consideration of relators’ motion for an emergency peremptory writ of mandamus, IT IS HEREBY ORDERED that relators’ motion be, and hereby is, granted, and that a writ of mandamus be, and hereby is, granted to compel respondent Secretary of State J. Kenneth Blackwell to reissue and enforce his October 26, 2004 Directive 2004-45 to all eighty-eight counties insofar as it permits, in accordance with R.C. 3505.21 and 3506.13, one duly designated challenger per precinct and, after the polls close, one duly designated witness per precinct,...

MIAMI — If they can get in the door, observers from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe will be keeping an outsider's eye on the U.S. voting process Tuesday... ...Under its commitments as an OSCE member, the United States is required to invite the scrutiny. What observers will be able to see, though, is unclear.

Allowing foreign election monitors is bad enough, but inviting disgraced former federal judge to pick them is outrageous

South Bend, IN - The South Bend Police Department says it will not maintain a presence inside local schools on Election Day. The police department originally planned on placing officers in schools that would serve as polling places; The schools will be open to the public on Election Day, which is causing concern for some parents. But the election board has asked police not to provide on-site security this Tuesday. South Bend Police say they do not want to interfere with the political process and while they will not be positioned inside schools, they will step up patrols outside polling...

- For every camera crew you see, get two people to film *them*. You cannot bring cameras to polls - will be regarded as INTIMIDATION by the other party - you cannot give them any excuses. Best thing is to get ANOTHER Witness and get a Witness Statement. This is advise from Bush/Cheney LEGAL team. Please make sure you pass this info around.

SIOUX FALLS, S.D. - A tribal judge filed an order Friday that, if upheld, may prevent South Dakota Republican Party workers from observing Tuesday's voting on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation. The Four Directions Committee, which bills itself as a nonpartisan group trying to increase American Indian voting, was granted the temporary restraining order against the South Dakota Republican Party and Ryan Knutson. Oglala Sioux Tribe Judge Marina Fast Horse signed the order without telling them about it ahead of time. In the document, Four Directions accuses Knutson of intimidating its workers on Wednesday at Pine Ridge by videotaping them...

Oglala order could prevent GOP poll watching on Pine Ridge CARSON WALKER Associated Press SIOUX FALLS, S.D. - A tribal judge filed an order Friday that, if upheld, may prevent South Dakota Republican Party workers from observing Tuesday's voting on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation. The Four Directions Committee, which bills itself as a nonpartisan group trying to increase American Indian voting, was granted the temporary restraining order against the South Dakota Republican Party and Ryan Knutson. Oglala Sioux Tribe Judge Marina Fast Horse signed the order without telling them about it ahead of time. In the document, Four Directions...

HARRISBURG - Republican officials yesterday accused the Rendell administration of partisan politics for appointing a major Democratic fund-raiser and noted critic of President Bush to help run the state's new election oversight efforts. Philadelphia lawyer Mark Aronchick has raised $100,000 for Democratic presidential nominee John Kerry, until recently advised the campaign on election law matters, and earlier this year accused President Bush of having a "contemptible pseudosincerity." Aronchick resigned from all legal representation of the Kerry-Edwards campaign on Sept. 22

TEHRAN: Iran's hardline Basij militia has written to UN secretary general Kofi Annan to ask if the Islamic republic can send observers to the US presidential election in November, a government newspaper said on Monday. "By this symbolic request, we want to ridicule the so-called democratic slogans of the American leaders," a Basij official, Said Toutunshian, told the Iran newspaper. "We want to say to the whole world that the presence of observers from the Islamic republic of Iran, the most democratic regime in the world, is necessary to guarantee the smooth running of the American elections." The Basij is...

PORTSMOUTH - Looking back at the confusion in Florida during the 2000 election, Amy Antonucci said she expected this year’s election to be different. "I would have hoped that 2000 would have been enough of a wake-up call," the Seacoast Peace Response organizer said in an interview this past week. But with just 16 days until Americans go to the polls, Antonucci said reports of incomplete registration records, efforts to disenfranchise voters, and problematic voting machines indicate that this presidential election could be just as, or even more, faulty than four years ago. "(President) Bush was talking last night in...

This is a partial transcript of an urgent request issued by the Hamilton County, Ohio Republican Party seeking volunteers to function as Poll Observers on November 2 in an effort to prevent vote fraud: "There has been an unprecedented effort to register voters for this year’s Presidential election. In Ohio, tens of thousands of newly registered voters will be going to the polls for the first time. Because of this, the possibility of significant confusion exists. It is likely that many voters in Hamilton County will be confused about where they are supposed to vote. It is for this reason,...

when the U.S. State Department invited the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) to monitor the U.S. election in November, it opened the door for international intrusion into our democratic process. Since the OSCE invitation, the far-left pressure group Global Exchange announced that it too would be disbursing handpicked international observers to monitor polling stations in five key battleground states. "With this third group entering the fray," says DeWeese, "it is clear that the drive to put our nation's electoral process under the purview of some international authority is a serious goal of the left. The president of...

Washington,D.C.--The U.S. State Department has opened a Pandora's box by inviting international monitors to oversee our Election Day process, says the American Policy Center (APC). The Center cited news that seven leftist organizations recently petitioned the United Nations to monitor next month's presidential election. . . . . For the entire Canada Free Press news, story click on Leftist Groups Call for U.N. Intervention in U.S. Presidential Election